Originally Posted by
Lordflasheart
[b]...
Group Captain Jackson said a feasibility study had been carried out and confirmed the system could be changed so pilots in the front seat could eject a passenger.
He said: “The feasibility study was completed by Martin Baker and it was deemed, yes, it could be incorporated into the aircraft. He said the improvements were expected to take between two and three years once the business case was approved.”
There's so much wrong with this statement I don't know where to begin.
Even if we ignore that fact he implies nobody recognised the risk until March 2018 (which would be untrue), why has a feasibility study taken over 3 years? Martin-Baker and BAeS will have known exactly what was needed, or else neither deserve their status as a Design Authority. Why has his office junior not self-tasked, identified funding, written the business case, and submitted it for approval within, at most, a few weeks? Instead, the witness is talking about 6 years and more from the accident to mitigation, by which time the T1 will be gone, except a few at the Reds which will presumably need a waiver as the timescale will start impingeing on the remaining useful life rule.
I'm afraid that, once again, an unfortunate MoD witness is reading from a script, probably written by those who are meant to have done the job, but don't actually realise this.
This all comes under 'maintaining the build standard', which is a prerequisite to a valid safety case, and permitting service regulated flying. It might be a good idea to start doing it again.